The beautiful thing I noticed since I came to Dubai is the big variety in everything!
Food, culture, people, religions and many other things. But as you all know food is what attracts me most of the time: P
A week ago, my husband insisted on taking me to try Indian food, so we went over the weekend and I tasted the famous Butter Chicken that he always told me how much he loves it. He was right it is amazing and so colorful. To be honest it was a little bit too spicy for me but I managed to finish it with a big glass of water.
After we came back home, I made up my mind to cook that recipe at home for my husband. And as usual, after doing some research, I didn’t like some of the ingredients! 😛
Typical me right? I can’t just leave a recipe as is. And since I have been married I have an extra reason to adjust the recipes and make them healthier. The reason is that when my husband loves a certain recipe he just eats a little bit too much 😛
This was extra motivation to make the recipes, that he loves, healthier, so that if he wants to overdo it, I convince myself that he is at least eating a healthier, organic and much lighter version.
So I made up my mind to do a healthier, butter-free version of the butter chicken. You will probably ask the same question my brother in law asked me:
“How it is going to be BUTTER chicken without the butter and the fatty milk! It is not going to be the same!”
Well, it turned out to be not only the same but much better and richer taste. I manage to maintain the ethnic taste of this plate but in a lighter version that doesn’t leave you thirsty and feeling heavy from the excess of fat in the butter and milk and fried chicken.
I just wished I had filmed their reaction when they tasted it, my husband just loved it and he kept asking me when I am going to do it again.
Yet another experiment was successful with this delicious Butter-less Chicken bowl, I cooked some saffron rice beside it, it just was one vibrant colorful lunch for all the family. And the most important thing is that it was a homemade dish that you could offer your family with no worry of processed ingredients in it, just organic whole fresh ingredients.
update alert! I have a second version of this recipe if you want to check it out here
this is a light version and the second version is more authentic with a little bit of fat in it but still very healthy and much lighter than the traditional ones you know
Butter-less chicken:
Serve 3
Ingredients:
For the chicken marinade:
- 450 g of boneless chicken breast cut into big cubes.
- 10 to 12 cloves garlic, minced
- About a 6 cm piece of fresh ginger, minced.
- ½ Tbsp. red chili flakes.*
- ½ tsp. turmeric powder
- 1 tsp. cumin powder
- 1 tsp. coriander powder
- 1 tsp. saffron
- 4 Tbsp. Yoghurt (laban)
- ½ Tbsp. mustard seeds
- 1 tsp. salt
- Juice of one lemon
For the tomato gravy:
- 1 big onion, roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp. garam masala pepper mix.*
- 500g tomato peeled and pureed. (About 4 to 5 heads of tomato).*
- 1 tsp. honey or brown sugar
- 10 to 12 raw cashew nuts soaked overnight.*
- 3 Tbsp. water
- 1 Tbsp. coconut oil
- Salt to taste.
Instructions:
For the chicken marinade:
- In a large bowl mix all the ingredients except for the chicken, and whisk until smooth.
- Add the chicken and mix it all together.
- Let it marinate in a cover bowl in fridge for at least 2 hours. I personally let it sit overnight in the fridge, the more you soak the chicken the more it is going to be moist and soft.
- When you want to do the recipe, start with those marinated chicken.
- Heat oil in a pan, and cook marinated chicken on medium heat for 7-8 minutes, flipping occasionally.
- Remove from heat and set aside, but keep the pan with the chicken moist in it.
For the tomato gravy:
- Prepare nut paste by blending nuts and adding water on high speed till a paste constancy is formed. Set aside.
- In the same pan, you cooked the chicken in, add oil and heat again.
- Add onion and cook it thoroughly for a couple of minutes.
- Add the garam masala pepper and cook on low-medium heat till you start to smell the flavors.
- Add the tomato pureed mix and mix all ingredients well and let it simmer for around 4-5 minutes on low heat, covered.
- Remove cover, add honey and salt and give it a stir.
- Now this step is totally optional, I just do it for extra smoother graving texture but you can skip it, that won’t affect the taste: I remove tomato mixture from heat and I smooth the mixture with a hand blender.
- Add the nut paste and let it all cook together covered on low heat for 2 minutes.*
- Add the chicken cubes, and fold it all together.
- Cover and let it simmer for extra 4-5minutes on low heat.
- Taste for salt and adjust for your tasting.
- Remove from heat and serve with some basmati saffron rice or some yogurt.
- Enjoy!
Notes:
*if you don’t like spicy food at all you can substitute the red chili flakes with some sweet chili pepper or paprika, and you even make it more spicy by adding some more red chili flakes.
*for best tender chicken it is better if it is marinated overnight.
*garam masala is an Indian spices mix that you can find at any grocery store in Indian food section, but if you couldn’t find it just replace it with a mixture of (1/2 tsp. Turmeric, ½ tsp. cumin powder, 1 tsp. coriander powder, ½ tsp. Black pepper, ½ tsp. nutmeg, 1 tsp. ginger powder, 1 tsp. garlic powder)
*for overnight soaked nuts, if you don’t have cashew you can replace it with almonds. And I you didn’t have time to soak it overnight you can blanch it.
*when you add the nut paste to the tomato mixture and cook it, before adding the chicken, if you find that the graving it getting too thick more like a paste than a graving add some water to lighten it up but not too much.
If you are a chicken lover like I am you can also go ahead and check those amazing healthy recipes with chicken: